Sestina d'Inverno...
Apr. 17th, 2009 10:07 amI love various poetic forms, things that impose structure on words, and I am particularly crazy over the sestina. This is one of my favourites, in which a Rochester winter sounds very like an Ottawa winter. I particularly love the line, "the wayward mind/Basks in some Yucatan of its own making."
Sestina d'Inverno by Anthony Hecht (1923-2004)
Here in this bleak city of Rochester,
Where there are twenty-seven words for "snow,"
Not all of them polite, the wayward mind
Basks in some Yucatan of its own making,
Some coppery, sleek lagoon, or cinnamon island
Alive with lemon tints and burnished natives,
( And O that we were there. )